A 3 page paper which examines the power and importance of the sea in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. No additional sources cited.
Name of Research Paper File: JA7_RAkca.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
written. It is a novel that speaks of the awakening of a woman, awakening to her own identity, or the search for her own identity in a society wherein women
were only mothers and wives. It is a story that also offers up many symbolic elements, not the least of which is the sea. The following paper examines two excerpts
that involve the sea, discussing the importance and significance of the sea in the overall novel. The Importance of the Sea in Chopins Awakening From the very beginning
of the story the reader knows that the sea will play a very important role in the novel. This is because Edna and her family are at the sea, and
the character is often at the sea, or in a house or setting near the sea. The sea seems to be a very important element to Edna as well for
she seems to see it, perceive it, feel it, as an entity that is all but alive, and clearly very influential. The first excerpt that is discussed offers such a
perspective when the narrator states, "The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to
lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation...The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace" (Chopin VI). In this particular excerpt the reader
sees how Edna connects herself with the sea, how she desires to be so sensuous, so natural, and without concern or thought or guilt perhaps. The ocean is wild and
not to be tamed. It is soft and alluring and yet has an identity that no one can alter. Edna loves that power, that sensuousness, that natural reality that is